Conventional print advertising and packaging is accomplished by printing, two-dimensional, non-movable information using words and pictures or graphics on magazines, newspapers, brochures, fliers, posters, billboards, and signs. While many conventional print advertisement and packaging are interesting, most are not. The primary purpose of good advertisement in packaging is to attract the attention of the reader or customer and convey the desired information. Unfortunately, many printed signs, advertisements and packages do not attract the attention of the desired audience or customers.
One area that seems to be of particular concern are signs that convey important messages of direction, caution or danger, such as "yield", "stop", "danger", or "open construction", and the like. Typically, these signs rely on bright and visually distinct or differentiating coloration to attract the attention of the person. One problem with such signs is that to the extent that the coloration is not sufficiently bright or the individual is not as sensitive or attentive to the particular colors chosen for attracting the person's attention the message may never be seen. One can readily understand the importance of capturing their attention for a sufficient duration to convey the desired message.
In an effort to attract a person's attention, such as a passerby or a customer, various types of signs have been utilized. For example, electrical signs such as illuminated signs including neon signs, billboard illuminated with floodlights, spotlights, marquees with moving messages, blinking lights, etc. have been used. However, such signs are very costly, bulky and difficult to repair and are not practical for such packages as magazines, newspapers, construction sites or for conventional marketing displays which would attract someone's attention to the information. Another effort in this endeavor has been to use lenticular imaging.
Lenticular images produce a three dimensional effect but with a lower perspective. Two components of a lenticular image are a master composite print and the lenticular screen or lens. Lenticular lenses are known and commercially available from a variety of manufacturers. These lenses typically consist of an array of identical spherically-curved surfaces embossed or otherwise formed on the front surface of a plastic sheet. Other geometric patterns for the lens may also be used such as pyramidal. In the case where the lens is spherically-curved, each individual lens or lenticule resembles a semi-cylinder extending the full length of the underlying image over which it is superposed. The back surface of the lens is typically substantially flat or planar and is the surface in contact with the underlying flat image.
In typical lenticular imaging, the master or composite print, includes a series of images photographed by using a multiple lens camera to produce three different images. These images are then combined or "laid up" onto a single compressed print consisting of a pattern of very narrow bands. A master image may consist of from 7 to about 24 photo views. To create a 3-D image using a lenticular lens, specialized equipment is needed along with a technical understanding and experience as how to use the equipment effectively. Setting up the photo is quite difficult and different from a two-dimensional shot. It requires precise positioning of the visual elements to maximize the dimensional effect. The relationships among such factors as the number of exposures, distance between track positions for the camera and front or rear locations of the objects and backgrounds must be computed mathematically in order to simulate a natural parallax.
Another problem associated with such lenticular displays is cost. A lenticular display can range from $3,000 to $5,000. Added to that is about $1,500 to $6,000 for image mastering. In an effort to reduce the cost of producing such images using lenticular lenses U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,718 issued to Goggins on Apr. 1, 1997 discloses using a computer generated lithograph or lithographic separation on an electronic page. The page consists of a collection of page elements that are arranged in a desired order. The elements can be drawn from a wide variety of sources such as photographs, original artwork, etc. The electronic page is then outputted to a half-tone film separation, that is a film bearing an image of the electronic page in a half-tone screen. Half-tone screens consist of an array of dots varying in size in relation to tonal values of the elements of the page. However, such lithographic separation methods produce moire interference or screen interference. Moire interference results from the overlapping of two or more grid patterns including the half-tone dots in film separation. Screen interference is also known as stair-stepping or jaggies. In an effort to eliminate the moire from lenticular images, Goggins teaches using a stochastic or frequency-modulated technique. He teaches using a direct pixel to pixel relationship to yield a resolution which is greater than conventional half-tone dot resolution. Moreover, Goggins teaches that in order to impart the illusion of depth and/or motion to a static image, the image must be made from multiple pictures. Each picture is rastorized at a non-binary pixel resolution or depth that corresponds to the resolution of the line count of the lenticular lens times the number of frames used to create the lithographic separation. In stochastic screening, the tonal quality of an image is represented by the frequency of the binary pixels which are all of like size. The stochastic image resolution is tuned so that each segment of a composite picture fits as precisely as possible within the width of the overlying lenticule.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,353 issued to Lefebvre on Aug. 9, 1977 discloses a display sign utilizing at least two different colors which are juxtaposed along unitary zones whereby the zones are distributed in a substantially uniform manner on a first area. The average surface of each area of the unitary zones is defined according to a predetermined distance below which the two areas are distinguished by the eye. The sum of the surface areas of the unitary zones of each color corresponds to a clearly defined percentage of the total surface area of the first area. The second area is colored by the resultant color of the optical mixture in the percentages defined for the first area. The second area is uniformly colored by a single color. By varying the characteristics of the first area such as the average surface area of the unitary zones, different perception distances can be produced. Thus, an eye moving toward a base surface will sufficiently perceive several areas arranged on the base surface or even overlapping or nested within one another. When the second area, which serves as the base surface, is also contoured by zonal juxtapositioning it becomes possible to combine all the characteristics of the two areas to obtain varied effects.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,802 issued to Atkinson et al. on Jan. 30, 1990 discloses a display system having a single-frame transparency which contains four independent images, each of the images having spaced apart groups of pixels interlaced with groups of pixels of each of the other images with each of the images being selectable for projection by a moving grid mask.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,213 issued to Sandor et al. on May. 12, 1992 discloses a method for making autosterographic images of an object using a computer. A predetermined number of planar images of the object are taken with each image being a view of the object the respective different viewpoint. These viewpoint images are then input into the computer from which they are interleaved using a high-resolution output imaging device on a spacer with a selected edge of each interleaved image being aligned with a predetermined direction on the spacer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,979 issued to Sekuguchi on Nov. 10, 1992, discloses a display which can feature moveable images. The process comprises generating at least two images with a computer or other central processing unit. The first image is then scanned into the computer and then subs altered or modified so that at least one and preferably all the images are masked and striped on the CPU by electronically removing, erasing, canceling or otherwise deleting a symmetrical pattern of spaces on the images to form masked images with a spaced array of stripes comprising viewable opaque portions with spaces positioned between the separating stripes. After masking, at least a portion of the masked images are overlaid, superimposed and combined upon each other in offset relationship so that the viewable stripes of one image are positioned in the spaces of the other image.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,874 issued to Winnek on Aug. 6, 1996 discloses a system of using an image processor, such as a scanning device, between the viewing screen of an electromagnetic radiation output device and a recording medium, such as a lenticular film or other recording medium.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved two-dimensional display sign that gives a distinctive and novel three-dimensional visual effect without the high cost or using an expensive computer, high-resolution printer, or multiple image mastering.
There is also a need for an improved process for producing an attractive and visually distinctive display sign that is efficient, effective and economical.